Major League Baseball’s DRM change strikes out with fans

Major League Baseball has apparently switched DRM clearinghouses. As a result …

Some hardcore baseball fans have been left stranded on third base by Major League Baseball after it decided to change DRM systems. As a result, game footage purchased under the old DRM scheme are no longer viewable, leaving fans with unwatchable footage—and no refunds.

Diehard (and recently ecstatic) Red Sox fan Allan Wood has blogged about his bad experience with MLB's Digital Download service. In 2003, he began downloading games at $3.95 a pop and burning them to CD-R. In anticipation of the Red Sox debut of Daisuke Matsuzaka last spring, Wood decided to watch some 2006 footage of him pitching in the World Baseball Championships for Japan.

Instead of seeing Dice-K toeing the bump for the Land of the Rising Sun, Wood was told he needed to obtain a license to watch the video. He was then directed to a DRM "phone-home" page at MLB.com to verify that he was indeed licensed to watch the footage. One problem: the page was gone. Since the DRM scheme couldn't verify that he was allowed to watch the videos he had purchased, he was out of luck.

Calls and e-mails to MLB went unanswered and unreturned, and over seven months later, MLB.com's Digital Download Service page still carries the same message. "As part of MLB's continued desires to improve customer experiences, the Digital Download Service is going through an extensive upgrade. We appreciate your support and ask you to check back soon to view this improved section."

Wood's customer experience doesn't look like it's going to be improved anytime in the near future. Wood told Ars that a MLB tech support person contacted him after seeing his blog entry and told him that MLB had indeed changed DRM services. When MLB's relationship with that service ended, so did its access to the licensing keys.

Not only could he not watch the videos he had purchased, he couldn't get a refund either. Wood says that he was told that his purchases were "one-time sales," and therefore ineligible for a refund. As a result, he's left with $280.45 worth of downloaded video no one can watch. Another person who left a comment on Wood's blog says he's out over $50 for the same reason.

Wood's tale of woe is another reminder of the dangers of DRM. If the company you purchased DRMed content from decides it's not interested in supporting it anymore, you're out of luck. The movies, music, or e-books you've legitimately acquired with your hard-earned money become a useless collection of zeros and ones on your hard drive. It's a lesson that was reinforced over the summer when Google decided to kill its video store, informing customers that, as of August 15, 2007, they would "no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos." No refunds, either; customers would have to content themselves with Google Checkout credit in the amount of their purchases. Google relented several days later, offering full refunds to affected customers.

Last year, the US Copyright Office considered—and then rejected—an exception to the DMCA that would give consumers in this sort of predicament some recourse. Under the proposed exception, those stuck with busted DRM schemes would have had the right to bypass the DRM. As it stands instead, paying customers are at the whims of content providers and whatever DRM clearinghouse they happen to be using at the time. It's no wonder so many sports fan turn to BitTorrent for game footage.

An MLB.com spokesperson told Ars that the site has since remedied the situation. "We've provided detailed communications to the affected customers," the spokesperson said. "It was an inelegant transition period and we didn't anticipate the problems it would cause."

With the exception of postseason footage, customers will be able to redownload all of the now-unwatchable videos. Postseason content will be made available at an unspecified later date, according to the spokesperson.